


Grieve

by Dracones95



Category: Mortal Kombat - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Human Smoke, M/M, Short One Shot, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 14:26:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5209244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracones95/pseuds/Dracones95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tendency to move from order to disorder increases as time progresses. </p><p>[Tomas Vrbada is left to deal with the consequences brought by the passing of time.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grieve

"Nothing ever stays the same."

He had heard those words for the first time from his grandmother, just days before she died peacefully in her bed on the second floor of a small apartment block in the center of the City of a Hundred Spires, place he, by that time, used to call home; he was around ten or eleven years old when she left him, unable to fully understand the irreversibility of such event, only that it left him with some sort of emptiness inside his chest. He caught himself absent mindedly walking towards her house one day, then stopped halfway there when he remembered that she wasn't there to welcome him and bake him cookies and kolache. She will never be again. Never again. A young mind can barely wrap around the idea of time passing over another, so when it crashed over him, it reduced him to a sobbing mess.

Now, he can't recall her nor Prague anymore, only a pair of warm brown eyes and the bell tower of the St. Nicholas church; he's tried to remember, to at least have something to think fondly of, but his efforts where useless. Those kind eyes melt into the icy gaze of the man in front of him, staring him down from above his mask; Bi Han sensed him losing focus, for what could have been the hundredth time that day.

"Whatever it is on your mind, it needs to go." He scolded him without much scorn, pushing him softly with the back of his hand. Tomas shook his head, a few strands of silver hair falling in his face and tickling him, making him laugh out loud and Bi Han sigh, defeated. "I clearly can't do anything with you today." He crossed his arms in front of his wide chest and Tomas knew he was smiling under the mouth piece. He brushed his hair back over his shoulder, rubbing at his sore neck. 

"What's eating you?" The man known as Sub Zero was a nothing short of a mighty, feared warrior; Tomas felt intimidated the first time they crossed paths, but the man proved to be a decent person. Someone he could even call a friend. Friend. It's been a long time since he called somebody that. Didn't recall the last person he called his friend. 

"It's nothing." He saw the incredulous look the other man gave him. "Really." He added, smiling when Bi Han tossed a wooden sword used for training at him. 

There was a time when Bi Han was patient and kind, but it didn't last long. 

Tomas found what Bi Han had lost in his brother; Kuai Liang had a bigger smile and warmer eyes, and stood up for him when Bi Han suddenly lost his temper and lashed out at him, bringing him down to the floor. The argument was heated, none of them backing down; Tomas had refused to believe, for a while, that Bi Han he knew wasn't there anymore. The punch aimed for his head took him completely by surprise, catching him off guard and exposed.

"He's changed." Kuai said, while they were sitting cross legged in a large training hall, watching young members of the Lin Kuei learn the basics of hand to hand combat; Tomas felt an emptiness he hadn't felt since she died. And he couldn't even remember her name. "Bi Han." The bitterness in Kuai's voice made him turn his head towards him and carefully study his features. They looked so much alike; Tomas suddenly felt a spike of fear that he could lose him the same way he lost Bi Han. 

"It's gotten to his head, this arrogance of his," Kuai continued, empty eyes staring at the floor but not really seeing it. "I'm worried about him, honestly."

Kuai's worry wasn't misplaced. The last time he saw Bi Han, alive and in his Lin Kuei attire, was only a few days before Scorpion ripped his head off his shoulders, proudly displaying it for everyone to see, the mask still strapped to his now white as a sheet face. An image which had made him toss and turn, soaked in a cold sweat, in his sleep, until finally shaking him awake, for too many nights. Too many hours spent on the rooftops staring at the black sky wishing it hadn't all turned out the way it did.

No amount of regret, or things left unsaid, could change what has been done, however; Kuai took Bi Han's place, as he always did in Tomas' life, but as Sub-Zero now. Sometimes he caught himself thinking, maybe it was better that way, sometimes he thought it was all moving too fast. Most of the time, though, he doesn't know what to believe. Changes he could not keep up with. One day he was going to take a wrong step. 

It was Kuai's turn now. He doesn't see it at first, but it's there, in the way he's suddenly stopped grabbing his arm and squeezing it, most of the time painfully so, whenever he got excited about something. It showed in the way he talked to him; his tone no longer warm and friendly, but strictly business.

He felt like he didn't belong with the Lin Kuei anymore.

That man that was now before him was a twisted, corrupted version of Bi Han, but he felt so familiar, in a way Tomas thought that time had turned around, allowed him a break. Went back to the old times when it was him and not Kuai that kept him up all night. He hadn't realized it until now, but he craved those days; he resisted the urge to rip this Noob Saibot's mask off, convince him, and himself, that nothing has changed. The way those eyes look at him was still the same. 

And so he took that wrong step, for the sake of old times. 


End file.
